If You Can't Get Up Early For Morning Quiet Time...

Dear Orlena & Sisters,
You wrote ~ I have been struggling with getting up before 9! I do not sleep well at night - dreams,nursing baby etc...~
Oh, Orlena, this was me! When I made my promise to God to get up early and seek Him, I had a three week old baby and three other young children. (Two that I was homeschooling.) I was on a two hour nursing schedule that kept me up most of the night. But I had made a promise. So I got up. And I got up. And I got up. (Believe me, I use to sleep in like you wouldn't believe. Often my children were up before me.) Six years later, I am still getting up.
Now I see such fruition in getting up before dawn, as taught in Proverbs 31. My home is richer for it. I hunger for His Word and thirst to get alone with Him each morning. He is the Bread of Life, and I have learned that "man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God." This is true living! And I can absorb His Word in the stillness of the morning like no other time in my day. Having done that, I now meditate on The Word as I work, which brings a sweetness to my tasks that I never knew before.
He has disciplined me to give Him the firstfruits of my day, relishing the stillness with Him; for the rest of my day will hold so much activity. And I am much more apt to handle all that activity in peace, if I have sat in the Presence of Peace beforehand. As the Word of God says in Hebrews, "discipline is not pleasant at the time, but so profitable for the one who is trained by it." I can attest to this Truth. The LORD is so good, so good. The change in my heart and my household is more than I can say, as I have learned to be "trained" by His loving discipline. He is my beautiful Father, my loving Savior, and the LORD of my life; I am falling in love with Him more and more each day. He is my heart. As my heart beats with The Word, my hands move in ways I never dreamed possible. For He teaches me more in those wee hours than I could ever imagine or write or speak about. No wonder hundreds of people came to hear Him speak, following Him on foot or in boats wherever He would go. No wonder they got up early to enter the temple when they knew He would be there. No wonder they crowded into homes or fields to hang on His every Word. No wonder!
I remember when I was just getting into His Word and saw some loved ones in my life start to lose their keen eyesight. I began praying for them when we were in the van on the way home; and that I would not lose my eyesight as well. ( I couldn't bear the thought of not being able to get into His Word every morning.) The moment I finished my prayer a car came on the left of us with the words PSLM 37 4 on its license plate. I grabbed my Bible and turned to this passage:
"Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
The LORD, the Living Word, calmed my fears in an instance straight from His Word! So I get up every morning, as I have for many years, and cling to Him and what He says. He is my delight. He is my strength. He is my great love. And I live to know Him more, and serve Him out of that great love.
Lost sleep? I have never been sorry a minute for any loss. For I have gained more than I could ever imagine. There is no one like our God. And there is nothing, no nothing on this earth that can compare to knowing Him and falling deeply in love with Him. For out of that great love comes the strength to serve. A service in such love that makes everything else bleak by comparison. Sometimes I think I will burst for the joy of it all!
Love,
Laine
"I love you, LORD, my strength." Psalm 18:1

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